Spring elements provided in articles of furniture such as beds designed for rest or sleep, and in other articles of manufacture, have typically been comprised of metal. Although plastic materials are generally good in compression, they tend to stretch in tension, which has heretofore limited their utility to provide spring elements for bedding and other applications.
The components of a typical, commercially-available bed include a mattress and a box spring. Each mattress or box spring is an assembly typically comprised by a frame, a plurality of metallic spring elements, metallic attachment members (such as helical wire attachment members, which are most common, "hog" rings, which are C-shaped wire clips, and, among others, steel clips) for attaching the metallic spring elements to the frame of either the mattress or box spring, and, as the third typical component, the upholstery. For some mattress assemblies, metallic edge stiffeners are provided to firm up the peripheral border thereof. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,305,879, 3,982,290, 4,101,992, 4,114,210, and 4,726,572 are exemplary of the heretofore known mattress, box spring and edge-stiffener designs having metallic spring elements, metallic attachment members, and/or metallic edge-stiffeners.
Several key aspects determine the utility of such articles of furniture during product manufacture as well as post-manufacture. Quick, training- and mistake-free assembly of the component parts is called for during the manufacturing process to minimize labor expenses. Low cost components are called for to minimize material expense. Failure-free designs are called for to prevent component breakage during use which, if such breakage should occur, would result in potentially-dangerous barbs and the like unexpectedly protruding through the upholstery. Post-manufacture, when the time has come for disposal, such as by shredding, the mattress and box-spring assemblies are called upon to be readily recyclable.
The heretofore known bedding constructions and other articles of manufacture have had their utility limited in one or more of the foregoing aspects.